Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Travel & Success Tours
DON'T WORRY ABOUT PIRATES! VACATION SECURELY WITH THE MOVING CREW'S NEW TRAVEL CENTER!
TRAVEL & SUCCESS TOURS ANNOUNCES THE LAUNCH OF ITS NEW CRUISE SHIP FLEET ON ROUTE TO THE ADRIATIC COAST 2010.
EACH CRUISE FEATURES A FULL COMPLIMENTARY BUFFET, OPEN BAR, DANCE FLOOR WITH DJ, SPA & JACUZZI, CLIMBING WALL, SHOPPING CENTER AND STATE OF THE ART CABINS IN STEERAGE. Each member will be required to swab the deck and batten down the hatches. Also some light vacuuming of the sails on less windy days.
Monday, April 13, 2009
A SHIPPING CONTAINER PACKED WITH WOODEN CRATES
EACH CRATE PACKED BY AN ARTIST WITH CONTENTS THAT “REPRESENT” A WAY TO CONSTRUCT A CITY WE KNOW AND/OR CONTAINS “PLANS” FOR THIS CITY
(thinking about each crate as a city)
(thinking about legos)
(each crate in relation to other crates)
(re-read calvino’s invisible cities)
each of us creates a crate. each crate is a small world. a model, a snapshot, a glimpse, a window, a lens, a frame, etc. of a specific place. this will be a self-contained world. a description of place. history, future, constructs, maps, plans, patterns.
this crate will be shipped, transported, displaced. this set of ideas, this way of life will cross borders, languages, time zones, mountains,, plains, seas, valleys, cities, states, provinces, territories. it will transgress all. it will not be contained but will excrete itself.
arriving at a gallery space it will escape from the crate. it will be placed in a new context. it will be juxtaposed with other models from within their crates. it will live side-by-side with each world in the shipping container and the gallery space when it is unpacked. and it will live with itself as it always does. waiting. waiting for something to happen. it will show its similarities, its differences. it will examine its own properties, its proclivities. it will discover formal sameness. it will parade cosmetic improvements. it will proudly display its currency. its current thought. its up to the minute presence. its now-ness through its contents of artifacts, tools, and instruments.
but then the audience will be asked to, invited to, encouraged to reconstruct these parts into a new vision, revision. a new city will emerge from these parts. what will be discarded? what will be pirated? what will be copied? what will be stolen? will a participant working on one city negotiate with someone working on another city? what elements will travel from one crate to the next? what competing visions will wage battle over territory, space, resources, the hearts, minds and souls of its constituency? will new models and systems emerge? will old patterns be reinforced or reinvented? who will control these visions? will it centralize, compartmentalize, disintegrate, conglomerate? will disparate voices unite or will competing fragments emerge , rise and fall?
and so, the crates will have many lives. a start, a plan, a birth. flux. some crates contents may disappear, flowing to the other crates. perhaps they start as raw materials only (constructed by each artist) and a plan or set of instruction packed into the crate. these materials and directions are to be configured by the viewers/audience upon arrival. the contents will be sorted out, organized, distributed, arranged as prescribed as best as possible.
then after some time they will be open sources. unprotected. malleable. the public steps in. tools will be made available to the public. to re-imagine the city in a box. the original configuration changes. hybridity. there will be adaptation and innovation. there will be chaos, waste, revolution. perhaps, eventually, there will be resolution. or at least stasis. some cities may be forgotten. or used and abused. back to waiting. hoping. and then they will be re-packed. re-situated. some reconstituted contents or growth will mean the need for a new bigger crate. returned to their origins or to a new context. a new gallery space. a living city. constant re-formulation.
(thinking about each crate as a city)
(thinking about legos)
(each crate in relation to other crates)
(re-read calvino’s invisible cities)
each of us creates a crate. each crate is a small world. a model, a snapshot, a glimpse, a window, a lens, a frame, etc. of a specific place. this will be a self-contained world. a description of place. history, future, constructs, maps, plans, patterns.
this crate will be shipped, transported, displaced. this set of ideas, this way of life will cross borders, languages, time zones, mountains,, plains, seas, valleys, cities, states, provinces, territories. it will transgress all. it will not be contained but will excrete itself.
arriving at a gallery space it will escape from the crate. it will be placed in a new context. it will be juxtaposed with other models from within their crates. it will live side-by-side with each world in the shipping container and the gallery space when it is unpacked. and it will live with itself as it always does. waiting. waiting for something to happen. it will show its similarities, its differences. it will examine its own properties, its proclivities. it will discover formal sameness. it will parade cosmetic improvements. it will proudly display its currency. its current thought. its up to the minute presence. its now-ness through its contents of artifacts, tools, and instruments.
but then the audience will be asked to, invited to, encouraged to reconstruct these parts into a new vision, revision. a new city will emerge from these parts. what will be discarded? what will be pirated? what will be copied? what will be stolen? will a participant working on one city negotiate with someone working on another city? what elements will travel from one crate to the next? what competing visions will wage battle over territory, space, resources, the hearts, minds and souls of its constituency? will new models and systems emerge? will old patterns be reinforced or reinvented? who will control these visions? will it centralize, compartmentalize, disintegrate, conglomerate? will disparate voices unite or will competing fragments emerge , rise and fall?
and so, the crates will have many lives. a start, a plan, a birth. flux. some crates contents may disappear, flowing to the other crates. perhaps they start as raw materials only (constructed by each artist) and a plan or set of instruction packed into the crate. these materials and directions are to be configured by the viewers/audience upon arrival. the contents will be sorted out, organized, distributed, arranged as prescribed as best as possible.
then after some time they will be open sources. unprotected. malleable. the public steps in. tools will be made available to the public. to re-imagine the city in a box. the original configuration changes. hybridity. there will be adaptation and innovation. there will be chaos, waste, revolution. perhaps, eventually, there will be resolution. or at least stasis. some cities may be forgotten. or used and abused. back to waiting. hoping. and then they will be re-packed. re-situated. some reconstituted contents or growth will mean the need for a new bigger crate. returned to their origins or to a new context. a new gallery space. a living city. constant re-formulation.
RENT-A-DELTA: A Response to City Planning Strategies in Rijeka, Croatia
a few rough notes from Francesco Molinari's talk regarding urban transformations in Rijeka, Split, Dubrovnik
(Cesco working with Platforma 981 in Zagreb, Prostor Plus (within Molekula), School of Physical theater and dance.)
RIJEKA
1950’s biggest port of Yugoslavia
Industry vs. tourism
Fragmented urban development
4 areas:
Baros Port
Delta (storage)
Container terminal
Refinery
Rijeka viewed as “gateway to central Europe”
SPLIT
Industry. Pop. growth. History: Roman emperor retires, builds his fortress in Split.
DUBROVNIK
• Art
• Tourism (1957-1988 there are 47 hotels built)
• Trade (small port)
Originally a cargo port. Shift to passenger port.
Former Yugoslavia
1980 Tito dies. The day that Yugoslavians asked themselves “And now what?”
Transition to market system from socialist system:
4 big changes:
• Banking system changes
• privatization
• administrative decentralization
• changes in legal structure.
Recent growth and change:
Growth from 100 municipalities to 500
Adjusting to the notion of private property.
Record keeping, determining claims of ownership. Cadastre, land registry.
Croatia has a pop. of 4.5 million
Political/governmental disorder creates delay. Disorder prevents wild investment. Creates a “fertile delay” that protects the coast from wild development.
EU now ordering the territory. Organizing.
New Market (real estate, development, tourism, etc)
• Weak institutions
• Increase demand for built space
• Focus on smallest scale, basic units of spatial development (proprietary parcel). pixel.
TERRITORY AS COMMODITY
Dubrovnik. population exodus. driven out by increased prices or pulled out by offers they cannot refuse. move to Mokosica. nearby bedroom community. destruction of old city as a living entity. social architecture dismantled. hollow tourist destination. Disneyland.
Golf. Developing former Yugoslavia for golf.
Property versus identity
Ownership as consumer versus ownership as citizen.
ECONOMICALLY COLONIZED PEOPLE
(Cesco working with Platforma 981 in Zagreb, Prostor Plus (within Molekula), School of Physical theater and dance.)
RIJEKA
1950’s biggest port of Yugoslavia
Industry vs. tourism
Fragmented urban development
4 areas:
Baros Port
Delta (storage)
Container terminal
Refinery
Rijeka viewed as “gateway to central Europe”
SPLIT
Industry. Pop. growth. History: Roman emperor retires, builds his fortress in Split.
DUBROVNIK
• Art
• Tourism (1957-1988 there are 47 hotels built)
• Trade (small port)
Originally a cargo port. Shift to passenger port.
Former Yugoslavia
1980 Tito dies. The day that Yugoslavians asked themselves “And now what?”
Transition to market system from socialist system:
4 big changes:
• Banking system changes
• privatization
• administrative decentralization
• changes in legal structure.
Recent growth and change:
Growth from 100 municipalities to 500
Adjusting to the notion of private property.
Record keeping, determining claims of ownership. Cadastre, land registry.
Croatia has a pop. of 4.5 million
Political/governmental disorder creates delay. Disorder prevents wild investment. Creates a “fertile delay” that protects the coast from wild development.
EU now ordering the territory. Organizing.
New Market (real estate, development, tourism, etc)
• Weak institutions
• Increase demand for built space
• Focus on smallest scale, basic units of spatial development (proprietary parcel). pixel.
TERRITORY AS COMMODITY
Dubrovnik. population exodus. driven out by increased prices or pulled out by offers they cannot refuse. move to Mokosica. nearby bedroom community. destruction of old city as a living entity. social architecture dismantled. hollow tourist destination. Disneyland.
Golf. Developing former Yugoslavia for golf.
Property versus identity
Ownership as consumer versus ownership as citizen.
ECONOMICALLY COLONIZED PEOPLE
MOVING CREW MEETING (3/28/09) TO DISCUSS PROJECTS IN CROATIA
What follows are some rough field notes from Nadija filling us in on project possibilities in Croatia
CROATIA PROJECT SUMMER 2010?
only small amount of funding available through city of rijeka and arts ministry of croatia
small amount for supplies or catalog
$500--$2500
DEADLINES IN SEPTEMBER 2009 FOR SUMMER 2010.
We need to work out our program and include:
Project description
Schedule
Visuals, text
Budget, finances
Places where we are looking for/applying for funding
Catalogs are important there. Create a catalog during Summercamp? Catalog, pdf version ok.
Housing covered in Rijeka with Cesco and Nadija and friends.
Scope of the project: one city, many cities?
Nadija outlined the character, history and possibility of
4 CITIES TO THINK ABOUT… RIJEKA, DUBROVNIK, ZAGREB, SPLIT
RIJEKA
Molekula space available
apply to another space in Rijeka. Deadline August/Sept.
Marin president of Filmactiv
Molekula big, storage/industrial looking building, a big box, in part of Rijeka which is part of harbor/port authority and part belongs to city. In the center of city but doesn’t feel like center. Cranes, containers. Size of Intermedia Dept. When located in International Center. Corridor 3m wide. Off corridor offices and rooms. Projection room used as gallery space. Editing room. Mirrored room for theatre, dance. Offices. Huge room called “living room” (lounge). Windows, air, sunny, light. Can see cranes moving containers out the window. Two columns in middle, small pillars. All first floor. Youth, cultural and activist center.
Second floor no access. Basement possibility.
Delta area. Rijeka river comes down to sea.
Transformation of rijeka. Funded by world bank. Commercial center. Yachts.
Rijeka’s aesthetic. Constructed by austro-hungarians in 1900’s. Big port. Ships. Trieste built as port for vienna; rijeka built as a port for budapest. Trieste and rijeka one hour drive. Both sides of port on coast spreads to containers, cranes. Railroad goes straight to port. Old trains. Old industrial buildings. Industry deteriorated since 1990’s. Bankrupt since 1990’s. Shipyards to be transformed into tourist areas. Workers’ city but workers now jobless. Paper factory and motor parts city shut down. Gearing towards tourism. Cultural tourism. Contemporary art museum to be built in motor building.
Production versus service
Post-war
Communicate with local students and artists. Take it on the road to dubrovnik.
DUBROVNIK
Slaven Tolj-- artist
15-20 years making art about local context. National/international artist. Saving the city.
Lazarte workshop. Mainly performance. Gallery space there. Workshop space for residencies. Walls outside the city—chambers for quarantine. 3 stone buildings. Local gov’t wants to kick workshop out for tourist use. Francesca von Hapsburg, tb… arts foundation. Cultural colonialism?
Elefite… islands. Loput—old monastery on island. Francesca bought it.
Dubrovnik undergoing brutal transformation. Giant carnival cruisers. 3-8 ships per day. Tourist souvenir stores. Prices raised. Real estate up. 9000 euros per square meter. Similar to Venice. Amusement park for tourists, flaneurs.
Art project organized by Slaven Tolj in Dubrovnik: standing on city wall waving goodbye to last cruise ship of season with handkerchiefs.
ZAGREB
Student center art gallery. Big space. 1000 square feet?
DEADLINE END OF MAY BEGINNING OF JUNE 2009 FOR 2010.
SPLIT
Split Arts Academy
Filmactiv working with Cinema Club in Split. Space.
Coastline
tour, boat, bus
Traveling
depends on budget
inexpensive van for 8 including driver may be a possibility
URBAN TRANSFORMATIONS
Cesco’s talk Thursday 4:30 pm Jessup Hall.
transformation of Croatian coast. natural landscape, social landscape.
Rijeka, Split, Dubrovnik
Rijeka collaboration Molekula, physical theatre, workshops. Evicts. Project Rent a Delta.
Italian and Croatian border history WWII.
EU postponed. Always on threshold. Waiting.
Neva Sills discusses Door County, tourist trap. schools shrinking.
Similar urban issues in cities around the world:
Venice
Macao
Pittsburgh
Detroit
Chicago
Grand Rapids
urban swap?
exchange, translation, local. your city here. model of my city. compare/contrast to your city. to rijeka.
WHAT ELEMENTS...?
Things that pass through people’s hands, flyers
Paper things, collapsible
Video
Ephemera
Show in Croatia and back in U.S. somewhere…
Possibly propose a 2011 curated show Des Moines Art Center, downtown space?
crates, containers, shipping containers, modular.
city in a box.
CONTENT
Content. Local context. Learn context through Nadija but also through…Molekula, Slaven Tolj, Filmaktiv, Marin, etc.
Research… conversations…
Kate Foley, Rijeka, contemporary choreographer and dancer. Dance troupe. Worked with Mike Kelley “The Day is Done”
Keep reading Mike Davis, Rem Koolhaas, etc.
Jenn Myers notes project in 2003 Panama City
sponsored by the Panama Ministry of Culture? Art collectives, artists, using the city as a protagonist.
Ghada Amer, billboards, Chinese sayings. Local graffiti artists work on buses.
City as protagonist
Our approach is as allies
Conversations with artists, others in Croatia
Blog?
Pairings?
Tourism, transport, movement, etc…
Urban Transformation
SKART
Skart art collective from Belgrade, Serbia. Collective. Leftovers. Remnant. By-product. Junk. 2-3 people anonymous. Anyone can be part. Citizens or Consumers conference.
projects: male embroiderers on street, singing socialist songs, coupon projects, etc.
Irwin
Irwin. Slovenia. Collective. Passports.
IDEAS...
Fast food, tourist crap
Made by genuine local artists
Working to engage the audience/viewer as participants
Culturally people in Croatia may be skeptical or unwilling to participate in dialogue in art activity.
Too many choices is a problem.
Fast.
Better to have a strong structure.
Better to assign a role.
Language(s). Discussion of …
English. as lingua franca.
Frenki. In Iowa City with Katie McG. Love. He is an amazing computer programmer, software designer, graphic designer. Can we ask him to help? With brochures, catalogs, websites, etc.?
DIDACTIC
Nadija isn’t worried about being overly didactic with a project in the context.
Postponing conclusion making.
Social Realism also didactic.
Advertising also didactic.
Starting project
can moving crew establish a long term relationship with Croatia?…
WORKSHOP model
souvenir-making
fast food
tourist crap
Lee Running discusses Harrell Fletcher
Harrell Fletcher’s “Expert Night”
10 people find 10 people, neighbors
local culture
The American War, book. (Vietnam)
MOLEKULA
What could happen in Rijeka (and Dubrovnik)?
Conversations
IMAGE FINDING, matching from one city to others?
compare/contrast. connect.
cranes
shipping containers
very tall buildings
development
road making
tourist
souvenir
boat
ship
river
ocean
factory
airport
etc
FUNDING IN U.S.
even tighter right now.
IAC grant deadlines and funding cuts
people may have to fund themselves, or find their own funding. ship things over.
keep on lookout.
funding research at summercamp.
CROATIA PROJECT SUMMER 2010?
only small amount of funding available through city of rijeka and arts ministry of croatia
small amount for supplies or catalog
$500--$2500
DEADLINES IN SEPTEMBER 2009 FOR SUMMER 2010.
We need to work out our program and include:
Project description
Schedule
Visuals, text
Budget, finances
Places where we are looking for/applying for funding
Catalogs are important there. Create a catalog during Summercamp? Catalog, pdf version ok.
Housing covered in Rijeka with Cesco and Nadija and friends.
Scope of the project: one city, many cities?
Nadija outlined the character, history and possibility of
4 CITIES TO THINK ABOUT… RIJEKA, DUBROVNIK, ZAGREB, SPLIT
RIJEKA
Molekula space available
apply to another space in Rijeka. Deadline August/Sept.
Marin president of Filmactiv
Molekula big, storage/industrial looking building, a big box, in part of Rijeka which is part of harbor/port authority and part belongs to city. In the center of city but doesn’t feel like center. Cranes, containers. Size of Intermedia Dept. When located in International Center. Corridor 3m wide. Off corridor offices and rooms. Projection room used as gallery space. Editing room. Mirrored room for theatre, dance. Offices. Huge room called “living room” (lounge). Windows, air, sunny, light. Can see cranes moving containers out the window. Two columns in middle, small pillars. All first floor. Youth, cultural and activist center.
Second floor no access. Basement possibility.
Delta area. Rijeka river comes down to sea.
Transformation of rijeka. Funded by world bank. Commercial center. Yachts.
Rijeka’s aesthetic. Constructed by austro-hungarians in 1900’s. Big port. Ships. Trieste built as port for vienna; rijeka built as a port for budapest. Trieste and rijeka one hour drive. Both sides of port on coast spreads to containers, cranes. Railroad goes straight to port. Old trains. Old industrial buildings. Industry deteriorated since 1990’s. Bankrupt since 1990’s. Shipyards to be transformed into tourist areas. Workers’ city but workers now jobless. Paper factory and motor parts city shut down. Gearing towards tourism. Cultural tourism. Contemporary art museum to be built in motor building.
Production versus service
Post-war
Communicate with local students and artists. Take it on the road to dubrovnik.
DUBROVNIK
Slaven Tolj-- artist
15-20 years making art about local context. National/international artist. Saving the city.
Lazarte workshop. Mainly performance. Gallery space there. Workshop space for residencies. Walls outside the city—chambers for quarantine. 3 stone buildings. Local gov’t wants to kick workshop out for tourist use. Francesca von Hapsburg, tb… arts foundation. Cultural colonialism?
Elefite… islands. Loput—old monastery on island. Francesca bought it.
Dubrovnik undergoing brutal transformation. Giant carnival cruisers. 3-8 ships per day. Tourist souvenir stores. Prices raised. Real estate up. 9000 euros per square meter. Similar to Venice. Amusement park for tourists, flaneurs.
Art project organized by Slaven Tolj in Dubrovnik: standing on city wall waving goodbye to last cruise ship of season with handkerchiefs.
ZAGREB
Student center art gallery. Big space. 1000 square feet?
DEADLINE END OF MAY BEGINNING OF JUNE 2009 FOR 2010.
SPLIT
Split Arts Academy
Filmactiv working with Cinema Club in Split. Space.
Coastline
tour, boat, bus
Traveling
depends on budget
inexpensive van for 8 including driver may be a possibility
URBAN TRANSFORMATIONS
Cesco’s talk Thursday 4:30 pm Jessup Hall.
transformation of Croatian coast. natural landscape, social landscape.
Rijeka, Split, Dubrovnik
Rijeka collaboration Molekula, physical theatre, workshops. Evicts. Project Rent a Delta.
Italian and Croatian border history WWII.
EU postponed. Always on threshold. Waiting.
Neva Sills discusses Door County, tourist trap. schools shrinking.
Similar urban issues in cities around the world:
Venice
Macao
Pittsburgh
Detroit
Chicago
Grand Rapids
urban swap?
exchange, translation, local. your city here. model of my city. compare/contrast to your city. to rijeka.
WHAT ELEMENTS...?
Things that pass through people’s hands, flyers
Paper things, collapsible
Video
Ephemera
Show in Croatia and back in U.S. somewhere…
Possibly propose a 2011 curated show Des Moines Art Center, downtown space?
crates, containers, shipping containers, modular.
city in a box.
CONTENT
Content. Local context. Learn context through Nadija but also through…Molekula, Slaven Tolj, Filmaktiv, Marin, etc.
Research… conversations…
Kate Foley, Rijeka, contemporary choreographer and dancer. Dance troupe. Worked with Mike Kelley “The Day is Done”
Keep reading Mike Davis, Rem Koolhaas, etc.
Jenn Myers notes project in 2003 Panama City
sponsored by the Panama Ministry of Culture? Art collectives, artists, using the city as a protagonist.
Ghada Amer, billboards, Chinese sayings. Local graffiti artists work on buses.
City as protagonist
Our approach is as allies
Conversations with artists, others in Croatia
Blog?
Pairings?
Tourism, transport, movement, etc…
Urban Transformation
SKART
Skart art collective from Belgrade, Serbia. Collective. Leftovers. Remnant. By-product. Junk. 2-3 people anonymous. Anyone can be part. Citizens or Consumers conference.
projects: male embroiderers on street, singing socialist songs, coupon projects, etc.
Irwin
Irwin. Slovenia. Collective. Passports.
IDEAS...
Fast food, tourist crap
Made by genuine local artists
Working to engage the audience/viewer as participants
Culturally people in Croatia may be skeptical or unwilling to participate in dialogue in art activity.
Too many choices is a problem.
Fast.
Better to have a strong structure.
Better to assign a role.
Language(s). Discussion of …
English. as lingua franca.
Frenki. In Iowa City with Katie McG. Love. He is an amazing computer programmer, software designer, graphic designer. Can we ask him to help? With brochures, catalogs, websites, etc.?
DIDACTIC
Nadija isn’t worried about being overly didactic with a project in the context.
Postponing conclusion making.
Social Realism also didactic.
Advertising also didactic.
Starting project
can moving crew establish a long term relationship with Croatia?…
WORKSHOP model
souvenir-making
fast food
tourist crap
Lee Running discusses Harrell Fletcher
Harrell Fletcher’s “Expert Night”
10 people find 10 people, neighbors
local culture
The American War, book. (Vietnam)
MOLEKULA
What could happen in Rijeka (and Dubrovnik)?
Conversations
IMAGE FINDING, matching from one city to others?
compare/contrast. connect.
cranes
shipping containers
very tall buildings
development
road making
tourist
souvenir
boat
ship
river
ocean
factory
airport
etc
FUNDING IN U.S.
even tighter right now.
IAC grant deadlines and funding cuts
people may have to fund themselves, or find their own funding. ship things over.
keep on lookout.
funding research at summercamp.
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